Space-Time Church

Hill stood quietly in front of the Lord's Manor, looking at the notice board he had not noticed yesterday.

The board that had originally been used for posting notices had now become a crystal screen three meters tall and two meters wide.

Hill examined it carefully:

On the right side of the screen, tasks released by the Space-Time Church scrolled past one after another. Every city had them, and the Undead could accept tasks across regions.

The upper left section held the lord's notices, while the lower section contained local tasks. Both were currently blank.

After thinking for a moment, Hill took out the crystal ball from the underground control center.

Sure enough, as soon as he brought it over, two small tablets floated out above the large crystal screen and landed in Hill's hands.

The light screen projected by the crystal ball explained that this was a task notice board and could be written on directly with one's fingers. Hill could give the two tablets to the administrator or village chief.

The tasks they released could all be viewed through the crystal ball. The crystal ball was the true terminal, and if Hill disapproved, he could use it to delete them directly.

There was also a final line marked in bold: Please do not appoint ordinary people to use the notice board's registration crystal tome. You will bear the consequences yourself.

Hill could only stare at it silently. Too many things from the past had appeared all at once, and he was having trouble accepting them.

Hill had read many legends about Gods ascending to godhood. Before becoming Gods, each one had traveled the land, performing all sorts of Miracles that benefited the people, warmly treating everyone who offered loyalty, showing gentleness and compassion, upholding justice, and spreading love throughout the world.

And now, was this His Majesty perhaps a programmer in his previous life?

Other than William, He had no intention of dealing with people directly at all. Everything was handed over to intelligence.

The God of Space-Time's intelligent program did handle matters in an orderly fashion. Yet such a great deity had human believers who did not even know what He looked like.

The reason Gods traveled the land was so that, during their ascension ceremonies, the divine statue formed by the gathered faith would resemble them. People would only shape the Gods in their hearts into something more perfect, something more aligned with the image They had promoted.

That divine statue would be enshrined in the Supreme God Temple, where only the most devout believers could worship before it.

As for the statues in other temples and churches, no matter what form they had originally been made in, divine power would later transform them into a uniform shape.

Hill thought it over carefully. When he thought of the God of Space-Time now, his first impression was that tablet.

Only a programmer would want to incarnate as a computer, right? But the Divine Scale statue in the church had a humanoid form.

Hill had no idea how this deity intended to handle the ascension ceremony. After pondering it for a long time, he guessed that He was delaying the time when He would ascend the Divine Throne and be cast out of the Main World by the World Consciousness, slowing the transmission of people's faith to Him.

Still, with such a strange method, Hill hoped the God of Space-Time could keep things under control. If the statues in the temples and churches really all turned into tablets in the end, Hill felt he absolutely would not be able to control his emotions. If he ever showed even a hint of gloating before a divine statue, not only would he be exposed, but his fate would certainly be miserable.

Adrian flew over with Olivia.

Hill carefully studied this future Priest. She was a typical Salar Nobleswoman, with golden hair, blue eyes, delicate features, and a tall, slender figure. She wore a finely crafted blouse, a light green silk gown, and a white robe trimmed in gold. Apart from a pair of pearl earrings, she wore no jewelry at all. Without knowing what requirements this deity had for female Priests, she had chosen what a noblewoman considered modest.

Hill looked at the determination and resolve revealed in those emerald-green eyes, then nodded in satisfaction.

"Welcome to my territory, Miss Olivia. I hope we can get along pleasantly."

"Thank you deeply for granting me this opportunity. Under the will of my God, I will obey your wishes." Olivia curtsied lightly.

Hill nodded and led her to the open space on the left side of the Lord's Manor, which he had already piled full of building materials.

He summoned the residents and instructed them to stand at the outermost edge. Yet after learning that Hill intended to build a Space-Time Church, the residents all knelt around the area in fear and trepidation. They might have Gods of their own faith, but before any deity, they did not dare show the slightest disrespect.

Whenever this happened, Hill felt deeply grateful that he could become a Mage. Even Melanie, willful and extreme as she was, had told Hill while teaching him that he should respect Gods, but never fear Them. In the world of Mages, the most important thing was one's own choice.

Mages could believe in Gods, but it had to come from their hearts. Whether for profit or because they sincerely agreed with a deity's ideals, as long as the decision was made by their true selves, it would have no effect. Otherwise, they could never become a Legendary Mage.

This was an ideal passed down through generations of Mages. Even the Gods could not oppose it; it had been won through the struggles of Legendary Mages over tens of thousands of years.

There were no selfless Gods. The fact that this continent had no God of War showed the bloody struggles among the deities.

Before tapping the confirmation for whether to construct a Space-Time Church in the crystal ball, Hill felt a sudden impulse. He took out some gold, silver, gemstones, pearls, and coral, then instructed Olivia to stand before the building with them and solemnly pressed "Yes."

The crystal ball floated into the air, radiating sacred golden light. The church gradually emerged inch by inch within the light, while Olivia crossed her hands over her chest and knelt amid the golden glow.

Hill and Adrian both bent at the waist in a Mage's salute, silently watching as the deity scattered His light.

When the light faded, the two raised their heads and looked at the church standing before them.

Hill searched his memories. This appearance was familiar. After thinking it over and over, he finally realized it was modeled after the new Invalides church in Paris.

It had a square Greek-cross layout, with four circular prayer rooms at its corners. The pointed cross had been changed into a Divine Scale. Its exterior was simple, and it stood around one hundred and twenty meters tall. A powerful drum raised a full, imposing dome high above the structure, while gold-trimmed reliefs displayed the God of Space-Time's divine domains. The square, solid church body appeared to serve as the base for the dome.

The colonnade at the main entrance was divided into two levels, appropriately expressing the building's scale. The surrounding walls were evenly divided by paired pilasters, and each bay and window followed the same design, making the building exceptionally solemn and elegant, yet lacking the mystery and sense of self-sacrifice associated with religion.

Facing the church, Hill exchanged a glance with Adrian. Churches best expressed what a deity pursued. No matter how beautifully they spoke, those sacred yet lofty and overbearing churches always disgusted Mages who pursued the self.

The Temple of Knowledge was solemn and elegant, while the Temple of Justice was dignified and austere. Their divine suppression was the weakest, so Mages held only these two in relatively high regard.

As for the Goddess of Agriculture, she did not build temples or churches. Her altars were spread throughout every village, and she had no need to preach.

The God of Space-Time would probably become the deity most favored by Mages in the future. A deity who did not pursue the offerings of believers and had even abandoned all mystery was worthy of trust.

Olivia walked over. Her robe had turned silver-blue with silver-black edging, and she wore a white cloak trimmed with silver fur over it.

Hill remembered that the players had identical robes. They were probably standard-issue robes, or perhaps a sect uniform?

Olivia gave a Priest's salute. "Lord, Lord Adrian, an oracle from my God: the church has four small rooms. The Teleportation Array on the left will open tomorrow. The one on the right is reserved for classes."

Hill nodded. "The church has just been built, and there are still many matters to handle. I won't disturb you. Go do your work."

Olivia nodded, turned, and entered the church. She had no intention of preaching to the residents still kneeling in prayer, nor did she pay any attention to the Undead standing at a distance to watch the excitement.

Adrian tugged at Hill. "Did you see those Undead watching? There are even Priests among them! Their own Supreme God's church has been built, and they still aren't coming over?"

Hill shook his head. "If you can't understand the Undead, don't bother with them. Their own deity doesn't care, so why should you?"

Adrian said speechlessly, "This world is changing too quickly. I think I need to go into seclusion for a while."

"Grandfather won't let you wander off so freely. Keeping you around means he can sell your face and get Undead girls to visit more often!"

"Little Hill, your tongue is getting sharper and sharper."

Hill sneered. It was not as if he did not know Adrian had told Falan that Hill squatted around the Lord's Manor every day just to trick Undead girls.

Falan had not left the Mage Tower recently. He simply disliked Undead girls surrounding him and calling him uncle.

Only Adrian, in order to investigate which potions the Undead needed most, stood in the potion shop every day. Surrounded by female Undead Mages calling him brother, he beamed with joy and chatted merrily. He actually had the nerve to talk about Hill!

Hill could not be bothered with Adrian, who kept looking around. Ever since leaving the royal court, the steady and reliable Adrian had become increasingly uninhibited. Hill understood that this was also because Adrian had completed the elementalization of his body and returned to the time when he had been at his most agile in youth. Without needing to suppress his emotions, a proper release would greatly benefit Adrian's advancement to Magus. That was why Falan did not bother controlling him at all.

If it had not been for the blow Melanie's matter dealt to Falan, he would have advanced to Magus ten years earlier.

But if Falan had presided over the royal Grand Mage Tower for more than ten years, pouring both body and soul into the Tower Spirit, he would not have been able to extricate himself so easily from the current situation.

Hill was merely an accident, but William was eternal.

The Magi who had served under Falan were now caught in a dilemma. If the God War reached the capital, they would have to fight to protect the royal family, which would mean standing against the God of Nobles.

Instead, Falan had managed to leave so easily, making him the target of much envy.

Hill wondered what kind of game storyline the God of Space-Time had created. William, who was conducting a nationwide census, seemed interested only in fighting the great nobles to the bitter end. His armies were all being used to seize the mines. Although large numbers of Undead mercenaries followed behind them, the main force had no intention of entering the borderlands.

Hill recalled the idiotic war storyline from games he had played in the past and felt deeply worried.

And letting the players guard the border—was no one really afraid it would all collapse?

The players were indeed fierce as wolves and tigers, but useless teammates were everywhere too. Hill had an exceptionally deep impression of Liang Xingzhu.